10-year-old Emily takes NP structure to bus stop

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: any age, any fitness level, any background — everyone is welcome at November Project DC and everyone can and will have a positive experience. Some might even take inspiration from NP back to their neighborhoods. Without further ado, this is Emily’s story.

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There was a new buzz in the hallways of Mckinley Elementary School this spring, and it had nothing to do with the approaching summer recess.

What was this November Project thing the 9- and 10-year-olds kept talking about? And how could kids get a “tagged” shirt like Emily Roske’s? And why, one mom wondered, did all the kids boarding the bus smell? “I hope some of the older kids remembered to put on deodorant, as kids at this age can SMELL!” she remarked.

Yes, this is the newest bus-stop game, or activity, to hit the school’s neighborhood — an 8am routine on both Wednesdays and Fridays introduced by Emily, 10, after she began attending November Project at the Lincoln Memorial in April, and her friend Max Broksas, 11, the other outspoken leader.

Every Wednesday and Friday, kids leave their homes half an hour early, walk to the bus stop, drop their belongings, and engage in a variation of NP’s “bounce.” Then Emily and Max guide them through a workout that involves running up and down the sidewalk or street — where it’s safe, of course — with many forms of “spice” thrown in.

“Max leads it but I sort of help,” Emily says.

“You give Max some structure,” chimes in Emily’s mom, Suzanne Roske.

That structure might include the kids — often 15 in total — pairing up, with one running while the other does push-ups or sit-ups and then switching. Kids who didn’t plan on working out but come to the bus stop usually jump in. #JustShowUp, right?

“It usually gets me real tired. It really makes me work,” says Emily’s brother Zane. “I go because all my friends go there and I want to go there with them.”

The kids’ dedication to waking up early and exercising hasn’t gone unnoticed by many adults in the neighborhood, even if their kids are now the sweaty ones on the bus.

“Parents have been impressed that kids are willingly getting to the bus stop early to exercise,” Suzanne says.

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Where’d Emily’s inspiration come from? How’d she learn about a “bounce?”

The 10-year-old and her Mom began waking up before 5am and attending 5:25 November Project DC workouts in April on the suggestion of Inga Broksas, an NP regular — and recent recipient of the Positivity Award — and Max’s cousin who lived in the kids’ neighborhood for a time and wouldn’t stop talking up NP at the now-famous bus stop.

Emily remembers her first workout vividly. There were tennis balls (ahhh, the McEnroe!). And no one her age.

“I thought there were going to be more kids,” she recalls while sitting on the Lincoln steps a recent Wednesday morning. “I was like, ‘I’m the only kid here.’ So it felt a little bit awkward.”

But…

“I had fun. It was like you guys were all very open to me coming. It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, no, kids can’t come.’ Yeah, very supportive of everybody that comes.”

It could’ve easily been a one-time thing. What kind of kid wants to wake up before dawn and go with their Mom to run with a bunch of adults?

Instead, Emily began coming every single Wednesday. She wanted to use NP’s array of cardio workouts to help her train for upcoming soccer tryouts. But more than that, she enjoyed it. She got to know some others. She exchanged hugs and high 5’s. She even led an NP bounce when co-leader Maria lost her voice.

It didn’t take long for the 10-year-old to truly feel a part of NP DC — and to start thinking about bringing it back to her neighborhood. Max having been to a couple workouts and knowing how it worked helped, too.

Suzanne noticed changes in her daughter, who felt more empowered with each passing Wednesday morning.

“I think for Emily it’s really given her a boost of self-confidence,” Suzanne says. “I love seeing her talk to everybody here. There was one time, I think the first time we did “The Rabbit” with groups of three and somebody said, ‘You can come with us, we already have three, but we can be three and a half.’ But she said, ‘I’m not a half person, I’m a whole person!’”

“Yeah, I was not very happy about that!” Emily says.

Adds Suzanne: “So just seeing her kind of take ownership and charge of who she is and have that self-confidence and translate that, it’s been really fun — and she makes me come too. Gets me off my butt.”

Emily’s Wednesdays, at least during the school year, are crazy. NP at 5:25. The bus-stop at 8. School. And then soccer practice (she made the team, and now even describes some of the NP workouts as “kind of easy”) after school. But she wouldn’t trade them for anything. “I get really tired in the day but I don’t really care cuz I love soccer.”

And she’s become an avid recruiter for November Project. With families traveling and kids everywhere during the summer, the bust-stop workouts might cease for a couple months. But Emily has no plans on discontinuing her NP routine and hopes to bring others from the neighborhood to the Lincoln Memorial on Wednesdays to show them where Max’s and her inspiration originated.

“She’s been a great evangelizer of how fun November Project is and has gotten some of my friends to come with us different days,” Suzanne says. “So she’s a little mover and shaker.”

And she’s making a big difference!

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